Changing Seasons and Changing Rooms

My last Daddy Blog was about putting together a new room for Grace.  Ever since then, we’ve been working on getting Grace to sleep in that room without a problem.  So far, we haven’t reached “without a problem” yet.  Grace is used to sleeping in our room.  She is used to our presence in the room throughout the night and that is where our current problem arises.

Grace constantly wants one of us to sit in the room with her while she goes to sleep.  At first, we obliged with her requests because we don’t want to traumatize her with all of these major changes at once.  Perhaps we’ve been a little too lenient with her however, because she has still not adapted to these new rules.

Last night, I went in and sat with and she went to sleep pretty quickly.  I was happy about that, but then an hour later, she woke up and came out of the bedroom.  I went and sat with her once again, and again she went back to sleep quickly.  Sure enough, she woke up a second time and Michelle had gone to sit in with her.  We had the hopes that the third time was the charm but like clockwork, she woke up again about an hour later.  We realized at that point that she was obviously having trouble sleeping, so we gave up for the night and put her in the crib because we were so exhausted and wanted to get ourselves to bed.

That was the last straw for me.  Tonight, I sat in with her while she fell asleep and decided that would be the last time I would do that.  She went to sleep, but at 3:30am she woke up again.  I was awake working on my Smackdown Review blog (which could be read here) and I put her back to bed.  This time, I told her I was going back out to the couch.  She didn’t like it, but she knows daddy is strict when he talks in that voice and that she had to listen.  I felt bad afterwards hearing her cry, but I stuck to my rules when I heard her messing with the door and sternly said “Get back to bed!”  The door noises stopped and random crying was heard, but that’s to be expected.  Overall, this entire process has been a headache and I will warn you all now – do not let your kid get used to your presence at night!  Let them know you are nearby and will protect them and keep them safe, but do NOT allow them to get used to falling asleep in the same room as you.

On another note, the season has changed and it is getting colder.  It has been rather cold in our house so I want to give everyone a heads up to check your furnace!  Make sure your pilot is lit so that your heaters work properly!  I will be taking a look at ours soon since the heater does not quite seem to be working.

I certainly hope Grace adjusts better to this new room of her now that the rules are being laid out stronger for her.  Being a parent certainly isn’t easy, but I wouldn’t change it for a thing.  What methods did or will you use to get your child used to their “big kid” room?